Hi,
The latest tech newsletter is now available at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2014/04 .
Below is the English version.
You can help write the next newsletter: whenever you see information about
Wikimedia technology that you think should be distributed more broadly, you
can add it to the next newsletter at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/Next .
More information on how to contribute is available at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News#contribute . You can also contact
me directly.
As always, feedback (on- or off-list) is appreciated and encouraged.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Latest *tech news
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News>* from the
Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these
changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/New…
available.
*Recent software changes*
- The latest version of MediaWiki
(
1.23wmf11<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.23/wmf11>)
was added to test wikis and
MediaWiki.org on January 16. It will be added
to non-Wikipedia wikis on January 28, and all Wikipedia wikis on January 30
(calendar <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.23/Roadmap>).
- You can now see relatively recent results on special pages like
Special:DoubleRedirects<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:DoubleRe…ts>,
Special:UncategorizedPages<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Uncat…
Special:WantedCategories<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:WantedC…es>.
They were disabled before because they were very slow. The results are now
updated once a month.
[
1]<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15434>
- As of January 16, you can make and use guided
tours<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Guided_tours>on the Asturian,
Farsi and Russian Wikipedias. If you want this tool on
your wiki, you need to translate
it<https://translatewiki.net/w/i.php?title=Special:Translate&group=e…
ask in
Bugzilla <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org>.
[
2]<http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-ambassadors/2014-Januar…
[3] <https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/105997/>
- You can give comments on an idea to have a fixed
toolbar<http://unicorn.wmflabs.org/navmod/>at the top of wiki pages.
[
4]<http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/design/2014-January/001377.html&…
- You can watch a
video<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:How_to_file_a_report_in_Bugzi…
learn how to report problems in Bugzilla.
[5] <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=54606>
*VisualEditor news*
- In the toolbar, the menu to edit the styles (like bold, italic, etc.)
now has a down arrow ([image: VisualEditor - Icon - Text
style.svg]<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VisualEditor_-_Icon_-_Te…[image:
VisualEditor - Icon -
Down.svg]<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VisualEditor_-_Icon_-_Dow…)g>).
The order of the Insert menu has also changed a little.
- You can now edit <gallery /> tags with a very basic tool.
[
6]<https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/107537/>
- You can now see a help page about keyboard shortcuts in the page menu.
[7] <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=52844>
- When you change categories, you will now see them when you save the
page. [8] <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=48560>
- When you edit templates, you will now see the parameters in the right
order. The ones that you must add have a star (*).
[
9]<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51930>
[10] <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=53611>
- The page will now be saved faster, thanks to a new way of coding the
text that sends 40% less text to the servers.
[
11]<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=59660>
- Your wiki can ask to test a new tool to edit
TemplateData<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:TemplateData>ta>.
[12] <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51734>
*Problems*
- There was a problem with search on the English and German Wikipedias
between January 6 and January 14. You could not see new pages and changes
in search results. [
13]<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=59979>
- There were "pool timeouts" errors on several wikis on January 13; it
was caused by a code change that was made to fix another problem.
[
14]<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=59993>
- On January 17, Bugzilla and Wikimedia Labs were broken for about 20
minutes due to network problems. IRC channels with recent changes (
irc.wikimedia.org) were broken for about two hours.
[
15]<http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2014-January/074050.…
*Future software changes*
- If you have removed JavaScript in your web browser, you will soon be
able to see the orange bar saying that you have new messages. If you have
changed how the bar looks with a gadget, you may need to change the gadget
again. [16] <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=56974>
[
17]<https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/95102/>
- You will soon be able to add a given Flickr user to a blacklist so
that their files can't be uploaded using
UploadWizard<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:UploadWizard>on
Wikimedia Commons and other wikis.
[18] <https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/42770>
- You will see a warning when you try to delete a page included in at
least one other page. [19] <https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/108188/>
- You will so longer see disambiguation pages in
Special:LonelyPages<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:LonelyPages&…es>.
[20] <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3483>
[
21]<https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/106435/>
*Tech news <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News>
prepared by tech ambassadors
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/Ambassadors> and
posted by MediaWiki message delivery
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/User:MediaWiki_message_delivery>
•
Contribute
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News#contribute> •
Translate
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2014/04> •
Get help <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech> • Give feedback
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Tech/News> • Subscribe or unsubscribe
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_message_delivery/Targets/Tech_ambassadors>.*
--
Guillaume Paumier
Technical Communications Manager — Wikimedia Foundation